Tisbury is set to begin the process of searching for a new police chief, and as part of the search the town hopes to recruit candidates from on and off-Island, according to town administrator John (Jay) Grande.

Police chief Dan Hanavan has announced his intention to retire this year, though he has agreed to serve past the end of his current contract, which ends June 30, if needed.

Mr. Grande said the town plans to use Strategic Policy Partnership, the firm headed by West Tisbury resident Robert Wasserman, to assist the town in evaluating its needs and recruiting candidates. He said the town will be working with one of the firm’s senior associates, Robert Haas. Mr. Haas is a retired police commissioner of Cambridge and has held a number of law enforcement and advisory posts in state government.

“We will map out the things we need to be updating, in terms of job description, profile of the community, as well as how he would recommend approaching getting a sense of the community in terms of what we’re looking for in a police chief,” Mr. Grande said.

While the parameters of the search have not been formally set, he said a few ideas have surfaced in preliminary discussions with selectmen.

“I‘m not precluding on-Island or internal candidates, but this search will go off-Island as well,” Mr. Grande said. “We’ll try and cast out a wide net and see if we can hire the best candidate.”

Mr. Grande added that the town will be looking for a long-term commitment from candidates for the top police job.

“It’s difficult to attract candidates off-Island,” he said. “I’ve seen so many since I’ve been here come and go in terms of other positions on the Island. I just want to make sure who we have on board will be committed to the community for some time.”

Selectman Tristan Israel also advocated a search that includes off-Island candidates.

“Recognizing that it’s difficult for somebody outside coming in, I would like a somewhat wide net so we have some options,” Mr. Israel said. “Anybody we hire I would like to have them be able to work in our small community, but also have some progressive ideas. The world has changed, and policing has changed. We’ll also engage the department itself in some fashion to be able to help in that search.”

The town hopes to post the position and begin reviewing candidates in March and April, then narrow the field and conduct interviews in late spring.